Obskuristan » Forteanismus

Ein unglaublicher Zufall II

nachtstrom — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:19:02 +0000

Kann man eigentlich seinem eigenen Tod entkommen? Nein, meinen die Produzenten der höchst unterhaltsamen „Final Destination“ – Horrorfilme, wenn deine Stunde gekommen ist, kannst du dem Tod nicht entflüchten. Und wenn du es trotzdem versuchst, wird der Sensenmann dich jagen und dich irgendwann zur Strecke bringen.

Gerade noch entkommen! Oder doch nicht? Shots aus "Final Destination 2"

Auch wenn die Hollywood’sche Personifizierung des Todes als unachgiebiger Killer an den berühmten „schwarzen Mann“ denken lässt, von dem auch ich als Kind fest überzeugt war, daß er mich irgendwann holen kommen würde, mag an der Theorie des „You can’t trick your own Death“ schon was dran sein.

Zumindest habe ich beim Blättern in meinem „World Of Strange Phenomena Omnibus“ von Charles Berlitz eine bizarre alte Geschichte gefunden, die genau das illustriert. Und die geht so:

The Slow but Sure Bullet

Henry Ziegland of Honey Grove, Texas, walked out on his girlfriend one day in 1893. Her brother did his „heroic“ duty and shot Ziegland. Ziegland, however, was barely injured by the bullet, which only left a small scar on his face before embedding itself in the trunk of the tree in front of which Ziegland was standing. The brother, thinking himself avenged, ended his own life with the same weapon.

Twenty years later, in 1913, Ziegland decided to remove the tree from his property. Unable to perform the task manually, he decided to use dynamite. In the explosion, the bullet, which had originally been intended for Ziegland, became dislodged with such a catapulting jolt that it was shot violently into Ziegland’s head, killing him at last.

Soweit die von Berlitz aufgezeichnete Geschichte, die natürlich als urbane Legende Einzug in die amerkanische Folklore gehalten hat. Eine Kugel, die nach zwanzig Jahren ihr Ziel findet- hatte der tote Bruder des verlassenen Mädchens (welches in anderen Versionen dieser Geschichte übrigens ebenfalls Selbstmord begangen haben soll) seine geisterhafte Hand im Spiel?

Seltsam, aber so steht es geschrieben…

Ein unglaublicher Zufall

nachtstrom — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:24:38 +0000

Neulich, beim Bücherräumen ist er mir wieder in die Hand gefallen, dieser unglaublich dicke „World Of Strange Phenomena Omnibus“ von Charles Berlitz- dem Herrn, der (wie hier schon mal berichtet) eigentlich „schuld“ ist an meinem unbändigen, nie vergehenden Appetit auf die seltsamen Ereignisse, die mir zeigen, daß die Welt anscheinend doch kein so wohlgeordneter, dreidimensionaler Ort ist, wie mir das seit meiner Kindheit eingeredet wird.

Viele Jahrzehnte lang hat er sie gesammelt, diese mysteriösen Geschichten von Begegnungen mit seltsamen Fabelwesen, von bizarren Zufällen, unglaublichen Spukerscheinungen und vielem anderen mehr. Sein gesamtes Archiv hat er in diesem fast 900 Seiten umfassenden Wälzer 1995 der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht; es war auch seine letzte Buchveröffentlichung vor seinem Tod im hochbetagten Alter von 89 Jahren im Jahr 2003.

Als Fortsetzung meiner Serie über fortean’sche Ereignisse werde ich in der nächsten Zeit ab und an hier über meine Lieblingsstories aus „World Of Strange Phenomena“ berichten, und den Anfang macht eine ganz wunderbare (und natürlich verbürgte) Geschichte über den unglaublichsten Zufall, von dem ich je gehört habe…

„On December 5, 1664, a ship with 81 passengers sank in the Menai Strait off the coast of Wales, leaving only one survivor, a man named Hugh Williams. On December 5, 1785, 121 years later, another ship sank in the Menai Strait and, again, all the passengers perished except one – named Hugh Williams. On December 5, 1860, yet another ship, a small 25-passenger vessel, sank in the Menai Strait. And once again there was only one survivor – and once again his name was Hugh Williams…“

Soweit Charles Berlitz. Vielleicht ein Fall von ausufernder Reinkarnation, wirklich schlechtem Karma, oder tatsächlich bloß ein bizarrer Zufall? Da kann man nur den berühmten Endslogan der kultigen „Gespenster-Geschichten“ im Bastei-Verlag zitieren: „Seltsam, aber so steht es geschrieben…“

Fort für euch 12 – Geisterarmee

nachtstrom — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:31:08 +0000

It is said, in the Scientific American, that according to the Warrentown (Va.) Solid South, a number of persons had seen white-robed figures in the sky, at night. The story in the Richmond Dispatch is that many persons had seen, or had thought they had seen, an alarming sight in the sky, at night: a vast number of armed, uniformed soldiers drilling. Then a dispatch from Wilmington, Delaware — platoons of angels marching and countermarching in the sky, their white robes and helmets gleaming. Similar accounts came from Laurel and Talbot. Several persons said they had seen, in the sky, the figure of President Garfield, who had died not long before. Our general acceptance is that all reports upon such phenomena are colored in terms of appearances and subjects uppermost in minds.

L’Astronomie, 1888-392:

That, about the first of August, 1888, near Warasdin, Hungary, several divisions of infantry, led by a chief, who waved a flaming sword, had been seen in the sky, three consecutive days, marching several hours a day. The writer in L’Astronomie says that in vain does one try to explain that this appearance was a mirage of terrestrial soldiers marching at a distance from Warasdin, because widespread publicity and investigation had disclosed no such soldiers. Even if there had been terrestrial soldiers near Warasdin repeating mirages localized would call for explanation.

(Aus “New Lands“, 1923)

Fort für euch 11 – Angelo Faticoni

nachtstrom — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:53:15 +0000

Hartford, Conn., Aug. 12 — Angelo Faticoni, known as „The Human Cork“, because he could stay afloat in water for fifteen hours with twenty pounds of lead tied to his ankles, died on August 2 in Jacksonville, Fla., it became known here today. He was seventy-two years old. Faticoni could sleep in water, roll up into a ball, lie on his side, or assume any position asked of him. Once he was sewn into a bag and then thrown headforemost into the water, with a twenty-pound cannonball lashed to his legs. His head reappeared on the surface soon afterward, and he remained motionless in that position for eight hours. Another time he swam across the Hudson tied to a chair weighted with lead.

Some years ago he went to Harvard to perform for the students and faculty. He had been examined by medical authorities who failed to find support for their theory that he was able to float at such great lengths by the nature of his internal organs, which they believed were different from those of most men. Faticoni had often promised to reveal the secret of how he became „The Human Cork“, but he never did.

(Aus “Wild Talents“, 1932)

Fort für euch 10 – Steine, die vom Himmel fallen

nachtstrom — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:57:57 +0000

In Science, March 9, 1888, we read of a block of limestone, said to have fallen near Middleburgh, Florida. It was exhibited at the Sub-tropical Exposition, at Jacksonville. The writer, in Science, denies that it fell from the sky. His reasoning is: There is no limestone in the sky; Therefore this limestone did not fall from the sky.

Better reasoning I cannot conceive of — because we see that a final major premise — universal — true — would include all things: that, then, would leave nothing to reason about — so then that all reasoning must be based upon „something“ not universal, or only a phantom intermediate to the two finalities of nothingness and allness, or negativeness and positiveness.

La Nature 1890-2-127:

Fall, at Pel-et-Der (L’Aube) France, June 6, 1890, of limestone pebbles. Identified with limestone at Chateau Landon — or up and down in a whirlwind. But they fell with hail — which, in June, could not very well be identified with ice from Chateau-Landon. Coincidence, perhaps.

Upon page 70, Science Gossip, 1887, the Editor says, of a stone that was reported to have fallen at Little Lever, England, that a sample had been sent to him. It was sandstone. Therefore it had not fallen, but had been on the ground in the first place. But, upon page 140, Science Gossip, 1887, is an account of „a large, smooth, waterworn, gritty sandstone pebble“ that had been found in the wood of a full-grown beech tree. Looks to me as if it had fallen red-hot, and had penetrated the tree with high velocity. But I have never heard of anything falling red-hot from a whirlwind –

The wood around this sandstone pebble was black, as if charred.

Dr. Farrington, for instance, in his books, does not even mention sandstone. However, the British Association, though reluctant, is less exclusive: Report of 1860, p. 107: substance about the size of a duck’s egg, that fell at Raphoe, Ireland, June 9, 1860 — date questioned. It is not definitely said that this substance was sandstone, but that it „resembled“ friable sandstone.

(Aus „The Book Of The Damned„, 1919)

Fort für euch 9 – The Revival

nachtstrom — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:50:11 +0000

Liverpool Echo, Jan. 18 — „Wales in the Grip of Supernatural Forces!“ This was in allusion to the developing frenzies of the revival, and the accompanying luminous things, or beings, that had been reported. „Supernatural“ is a word that has no place in my vocabulary. In my view, it has no meaning, or distinguishment. If there never has been, finally, a natural explanation of anything, everything is, naturally enough, the supernatural.

The grip was a grab by the craze. The excitement was combustion, or psycho-electricity, or almost anything except what it was supposed to be, and perhaps when flowing from human batteries there was a force that was of use to the luminous things that hung around. Maybe they fed upon it, and grew, and glowed, brilliant with nourishing ecstasies. See data upon astonishing growths of plants, when receiving other kinds of radio-active nourishment, or stimulation. If a man can go drunk on God, he may usefully pass along his exhilarations to other manifestations of godness.

There were flares where they’d be least expected. In the big stores, in the midst of waiting on customers, shop girls would suddenly, or electrically, start clapping hands and singing. [...] There were confession-addicts who, past possibility of being believed, proclaimed their own wickedness, and then turned to public confessions for their neighbours, until sinful neighbours appealed to the law for protection. In one town, a men went from store to store, „returning“ things that he had not stolen. Bands of girls roved the streets, rushing earnestly and mischievously into the more sedate churches, where the excitation was not encouraged, singing and clapping their hands, all of them shouting, and some of them blubbering, and then some of the most sportive ones blubbering, compelled into a temporary uniformity. This clapping of hands, in time with the singing, was almost irresistible: some vibrational reason: power of the rhythm to harmonize diverse units; primitive power of the drum-beat. Special trains set out from Liverpool to Welsh meeting-places, with sightseers, who hadn’t a concern for the good of their souls; vendors of things that might have a sale; some earnest ones. Handclapping started up, and emotional furies shot through Wales.

(Aus “Lo!“, 1931)

Fort für euch 8 – Electric Girl

nachtstrom — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:43:50 +0000

There are many accounts of poltergeist-phenomena that are so obscured by the preconceptions of witnesses that one can’t tell whether they are stories of girls who had occult powers, or of invisible beings, who, in the presence of girl-mediums, manifested. But the story of Angelique Cottin is an account of a girl, who, by an unknown influence of her own, acted upon objects in ways like those that have been attributed to spirits. The phenomena of Angelique Cottin, of the town of La Perriere, France, began upon January 15, 1846, and lasted ten weeks. Anybody who would like to read an account of this wild, or undeveloped, talent, that is free from interpretations by spiritualists and anti-spiritualists, should go to the contemporaneous story, published in the Journal des Debats (Paris) February, 1846. Here are accounts by M. Arago and other scientists. When Angelique Cottin went near objects, they bounded away. She could have made a perpetual motion machine whiz. She was known as the Electric Girl, so called, because nobody knew what to call her. When she tried to sit in a chair, there was low comedy. The chair was pulled away, or, rather, was invisibly pushed away. There was such force here that a strong man could not hold the chair. A table, weighing 60 pounds, rose from the floor, when she touched it. When she went to bed, the bed rocked.

(Aus “Wild Talents“, 1932)

Fort für euch 7 – Botschaften vom Mars

nachtstrom — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:54:15 +0000

New York Tribune, Sept. 2, 1921: „J.C.H. Macbeth, London Manager of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd., told several hundred men, at a luncheon of the Rotary Club, of New York, yesterday, that Signor Marconi believed he had intercepted messages from Mars, during recent atmospheric experiments with wireless on board his yacht Electra, in the Mediterranean. Mr. Macbeth said that Signor Marconi had been unable to conceive of any other explanation of the fact that, during his experiments he had picked up magnetic wavelengths of 150,000 metres, whereas the maximum length of wave-production in the world today is 14,000 metres. The regularity of the signals, Mr. Macbeth declared, disposed of any assumption that the waves might have been caused by electrical disturbance. The signals were unintelligible, consisting of a code, the speaker said, and the only signal recognized was one resembling the letter V in the Marconi code.“

(Aus “New Lands“, 1923)

Fort für euch 6 – Die fliegende Schlange

nachtstrom — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:24:44 +0000

I don’t know what will be thought generally of our data, but in the New York Times, July 6, 1873, the writer of General Notes tells of something that he considered „the very worst case of delirium tremens on record.“ This was before my time. He copied from the Bonham (Texas) Enterprise — that a few days before the time of writing, a man living 5 or 6 miles from Bonham, had told of having seen something like an enormous serpent, floating over his farm; and that other men working in the fields had seen the thing and had been frightened. I suppose that, equally delirious, inhabitants of the backwoods of China, would similarly describe one of this earth’s airships floating over their farms. I don’t know that this one account, considered alone, amounts to anything, but, in the Times, of the 7th of July, I found something else noted. A similar object had been reported from Fort Scott, Kansas. „About half way above the horizon, the form of a huge serpent, apparently perfect in form, was plainly seen.“

(Aus „Lo!„, 1931)

Fort für euch 5 – Unheimliche Friseure

nachtstrom — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:32:37 +0000

There were accounts in the London newspapers, of Dec. 2 and 10, 1922, of a scare in places east and west of London. In a street, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, a woman found that her braid had been cut off. She had been aware of no such operation, but remembered that, in a crowd, her hat had been pushed over her eyes. According to the stories, women were terrorized by „a vanishing man.“ „Disappeared as if by magic.“ It is an uncatchable again, a defiant fellow, operating openly, as if confident that he could not be caught. Note that these are not ghost stories. They are stories of human beings, who seemed to have ghostly qualities, or powers. Dorris Whiting, aged 17, approaching her home, in the village of Orpington, saw a man, leaning on the gate. As she was passing him, he grabbed her, and cut off her hair. The girl screamed, and her father and brother ran to her. They searched, but the clipper was unfindable. A maid, employed by Mrs. Glanfield, of Crofton Hall, Orpington, was pounced upon by a man, who hacked off a handful of her hair. He vanished. There was excitement in Orpington, at the end of a bus route. A girl exclaimed that much of her hair had been cut off. Merely this does not seem mysterious; it seems that a deft fellow could have done this without being seen by the other passengers. But other girls were saying whatever girls say when they discover that their hair has been cut off. At Enfield, a girl named Brand, employed as a typist, at the Constitutional Club, was near the club house, one morning, about eight o’clock, when a man grabbed her and cut off her hair. „No trace of him was found, though the search was taken up a minute after the outrage.“

(Aus „Wild Talents„, 1932)